Showing posts with label Tortula muralis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tortula muralis. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Mosses - plants with teeth
























The developing spore capsules of wall screw-moss, Tortula muralis, spotlit by the low winter sun.



The capsules are still in the early stages of development but when they're ripe they'll shed their spores through a remarkable mechanism that involves the uncurling of a set of teeth, twisted like a screw thread, arranged around the mouth of the capsule. You can see them here.